Apology from newzimbabwe.com

FOR a period of an hour on Saturday, this website carried a story
under the headline ‘Vice President John Nkomo dies’.

The story was
based on information given to us by two Zanu PF officials and a senior civil
servant who unfortunately turned out to be sharing a common source. One of
the sources we used has previously proved reliable, and was at the time
attending the party’s conference in Gweru.

But further checks initiated
immediately showed that we had been misled, and the Vice President is alive,
although he remains gravely ill.

As soon as we became aware of this fact,
we moved quickly to pull this misleading story from the website, and delete
it from our servers.

New Zimbabwe.com has been online for nearly 10 years
and during this period we have gained a reputation as an authoritative
source of news from Zimbabwe.

If ever we fail, we are letting down
the people who mean most to us: our readers.On this occasion, we failed
the nation and for that we are terribly sorry. We also wish to apologise
unreservedly to Vice President Nkomo and his family, who unfortunately have
had to deal with this speculation before.

In the 24-hour news cycle,
mistakes like this will occasionally happen. But that is not the standard
New Zimbabwe.com demands of itself. Our mission is to tell the
truth.

Our readers will be rightly disappointed, but we are doubly
determined to regain your trust and continue to be an accurate source for
breaking news.

We wish the Vice President a speedy recovery while we
strengthen our internal systems to ensure errors like this do not happen in
the future.

Our apology is sincere, unreserved and heartfelt.

This
episode is now behind us and we hope to continue to serve Zimbabweans
honestly and truthfully.Mduduzi MathuthuEditor

Zanu-PF
plotting landslide election victory

Zimbabwe's long-time President
Robert Mugabe said Saturday that his party is geared up for a "resounding"
victory in elections scheduled next year.

Mugabe, addressing 5,000
loyalists at the end of his party's annual convention in the provincial city
of Gweru on Saturday, said that his ZANU-PF party will fight like a "wounded
animal to reclaim the government we lost" in 2008 elections.

Mugabe,
88, has been nominated as his party's presidential candidate. He has ruled
Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980.

He is in a
fractious four-year-old coalition with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that
was brokered by regional leaders a year after violent and inconclusive
elections.

The two-day convention was held in a $6.5 million conference
hall that was constructed in less than three months by a Chinese firm for
the party convention.

Mugabe said he was going to declare 2013, the
"year of electoral victory that will redeem us from the
coalition."

Mugabe warned his top officials to desist from infighting
because it is "dangerous" and threatened unity. He said disunity and
complacency had cost his party the previous vote.

"We were very
divided and suicidally indifferent in 2008," Mugabe said. "We are now like a
wounded animal, and you know how it fights."

Deep divisions in ZANU-PF
have emerged over Mugabe's likely successor. Top party leaders, Defense
Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and Vice President Joice Mujuru have been touted
as possible candidates to lead the party in the event Mugabe retires or
dies.

But Mugabe on Saturday told supporters it is awkward that top party
officials were canvassing for top leadership positions in the
party.

"In our time it was embarrassing for you to campaign for a post.
Ambition causes divisions in the party," Mugabe said.

He said
Mnangagwa and Mujuru must stop getting people to support them as individuals
and instead must work at getting people to support the party.

"Ensure
people are united but not around you, you are there to lead them, the party
doesn't belong to you," he said. That is dangerous, absolutely
dangerous."

Mugabe also told his supporters that there was no need to
engage in violence in the upcoming elections because "we have the strength
of our policies" unlike his partners in the coalition, Tsvangirai 's
Movement for Democratic Change party, as "clueless spooks sent to cause us
grief."

Mugabe's often violent program to seize thousands of white-owned
farms since 2000 disrupted the agriculture-based economy. He has also
announced plans to force businesses and mines to hand over a 51 percent
ownership to black Zimbabweans.

"We don't want violence. That is
dirty and we are a clean party because we are intellectuals," Mugabe said.

Zanu
(PF) resolves to muzzle private radio stations

The curtain came down on the 13th Zanu (PF) annual
People’s Conference in Gweru on Saturday with the party calling for the
muzzling of private radio stations and its First Secretary and President,
Robert Mugabe, begging for internal unity ahead of what he described as a
“watershed” election next year.

The major highlight of the
day was the afternoon presentation of cluster resolutions, during which the
head of the Media, Science and Technology Committee, Olivia Muchena, told
delegates that they had wanted the jamming of radio stations beaming into
Zimbabwe from outside.

These stations include SW Radio Africa, VOP and
Studio 7 that are based in the US and UK.

“Our committee is urging
the party to adopt technology that will jam hostile foreign media in areas
where State radio and television services are not available. We should find
technology as a party so that these radio stations are not accessible to the
people in those areas,” Muchena announced.

These stations have been
providing alternative coverage on Zimbabwe for more than a decade in the
wake of a State-imposed monopoly of the airwaves by the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation.

Already, they are victims of scrambling by the
local secret service which is reported to have received state-of-the-art
jamming equipment from China several years ago.

Muchena’s committee
also urged the party to invest in Information Communication Technology to
fight “cyber warfare”.

“ICTs are important in cyber warfare and the party
should invest a minimum of $5m for ICT platforms for social media. We will
not explain the details because we should not do that,” said Muchena, who,
according to party Chairman, Simon Khaya Moyo, had to speak from the floor
because of an injured leg following an accident.

Her cluster also
resolved that Zanu (PF) should establish a radio and television station “as
we cannot rely on State radio and television during elections because of too
many regulations” and urged the party to “treat messages on cellphones with
utmost caution as some of them are hostile”.

Her party seems to have
adopted a combative attitude towards social media and telephony in spreading
vital information during elections.

Other major resolutions by the
committees included:

• The setting up of an ideological school for Zanu
(PF) members

• Holding elections “without failure” by March 2013 and a
referendum on a draft constitution this month

• Giving beneficiaries
of the land redistribution programme the first right of refusal in the event
that mining claims are found on their farms

• Pushing for legislation
forcing banks to financially support local companies

• Setting up
banks in rural areas

• Establishing a Commission of Inquiry into the
activities of diamond mining giant, De Beers, during the time it operated in
the country

• Setting up a Robert Mugabe Foundation to update supporters
on party developments throughout the world

• Stopping the police and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority from
clogging highways with roadblocks

In his closing remarks, Mugabe
begged for unity.

“We are looking forward to the watershed year (2013)
which is upon us.

Zanu (PF) is like a wounded beast, and you know how a
wounded beast fights,” said Mugabe.

“I urge the party to be united
because in 2008, we went into the polls either divided or relaxed. We hear
that this faction belongs to Emmerson Mnangagwa and this faction to Joice
Mujuru. That is absolutely dangerous and avoid that! What kind of leaders
are you?” said Mugabe as he banged the podium.

Mugabe was for the
first time beaten by his bitter rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, during the first
round of the presidential poll in March 2008, but won the violence-ridden
June runoff on a technicality after his opponent pulled out in
protest.

Mnangagwa, the Defence Minister, and Mujuru, the Vice President,
are said to lead rival factions positioning themselves to take over from
Mugabe, who has however been endorsed as the party candidate for next year’s
presidential election.

The Zanu (PF) conference, which this year ran
under a theme emphasising economic growth and employment creation apparently
to win voters’ hearts, is an annual event to analyse party activities and
map the way into the future.

It is punctuated by party a party congress
that takes place after every five years and at which important decisions
such as leadership change are made.

MDC-T
eyes electoral pact to unseat Mugabe

MORGAN Tsvangirai is not the President
of Zimbabwe because talks aimed at reunifying the two MDC factions collapsed
in 2008 – just months before general elections, according to his party’s
secretary general Tendai Biti.

Biti said the decision by the MDC-T –
which won a larger share of the electoral vote compared to the splinter
party now led by the party’s founding secretary general Welshman Ncube – to
go it alone had aided President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party.

The
talks collapsed over the distribution of parliamentary seats between the two
parties.Biti, who had advocated for the reunification of the parties, says
he became so despondent after the failed talks that he would not want to be
involved again.

Yet the Finance Minister, speaking in Manchester,
England, on Friday insisted that he had no doubt Mugabe would lose against a
coalition of determined Zimbabwean opposition leaders.

“For me
personally, I did my best to see the reunification of the two MDCs and I was
really shattered when our talks broke down on February 2, 2008,” Biti told
New Zimbabwe.com.

“I think it was a disaster, and to prove that those of
us who were preaching unity were vindicated, the presidential run-off
election was caused by the 9 percent that we theoretically lost to Simba
Makoni.”

Makoni, a former Zanu PF official and leader of the then
newly-formed Mavambo-Kusile party, stood as an independent with the support
of Ncube’s MDC.

Tsvangirai polled 1,195,562 votes (47.9 percent) to
Mugabe’s 1,079,730 votes (43.2 percent) which fell shy of the 50.01 percent
which would have secured him the presidency.

Makoni’s 8.3 percentage
share of the vote meant there was no outright winner, triggering a run-off
election between Mugabe and Tsvangirai in June 2008 which the MDC-T leader
opted out of, citing the widespread intimidation and killing of his
supporters.

Mugabe later agreed to share power with Tsvangirai and
Ncube's MDC, then led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, after
regional countries refused to recognise his lopsided run-off
victory.

Biti admits the two MDC parties are unlikely to reunite, but he
still hopes an electoral pact can still be possible to unseat the
88-year-old Mugabe who has been in power since 1980.

He said: “I pray
that there will be maturity at the relevant time not for the reunification
of the parties, I think that will never happen, but for some kind of
electoral pact.

“I hope the leaders of all the democracy loving
political parties in Zimbabwe – Simba Makoni, Dumiso Dabengwa, Welshman
Ncube, Morgan Tsvangirai and others – will come together for some kind of
pact.

“One thing I can assure you is that I hope not to be involved in
the negotiations because the way they collapse is very painful, and I still
have a hangover from the collapse of the 2008 talks.”

Chihuri
defends Zanu PF conference appearance

POLICE chief Augustine Chihuri has told the
MDC-T that it has no hope of taking over power if the party does not respect
veterans of the country’s fight for independence from British colonial
rule.

Chihuri was reacting criticism by MDC-T secretary general and
Finance Minister Tendai Biti who told New Zimbabwe.com the security services
chiefs had abandoned all pretences at being public servants by attending the
Zanu PF national conference in Gweru.

Speaking in the United Kingdom, Biti said the service
chiefs should not have attended a party political gathering.“We have
always said it that these people are partisan and lack the professional
discipline of civil servants. I wish I could say I’m surprised by it, but
I’m not because it confirms what we have always said.”

But Chihuri hit
back Sunday saying: “We are part and parcel of the revolution. We cannot be
divorced from that revolution; those who are thinking of leading this
country without respecting those who fought for it must stop
dreaming.

“For us not to be part of that revolution is trying to make us
forget where we came from, who I am and who I would have been."He added:
“Remember, we fought for this country to keep and not to let it go just like
that; we fought a bitter war against the robbers, thieves and murderers who
were enjoying the fruits of our country while we were languishing in
poverty.

“We are service chiefs and we go everywhere where the President
is. The next time the conference is held, we will go and we will continue to
go. It shows that we are loyal.

“Besides, the blood which was shed is
giving them freedom to say that rubbish. They are doing whatever they are
doing because we fought for this country for it to be free.”

The
MDC-T has been pressing for a reform of the country’s security services
after top generals insisted that they would not service under a President
who was not involved in the liberation struggle, a veiled reference to Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai however, says the generals who
have benefitted from Zanu PF’s continued stay in power do not speak for the
military rank and file.

The MDC-T leader says he is confident that an
MDC-T government will take over power should he win new elections expected
in March next year.

Frugal
Mugabe shakes off 'out of touch' tag

IF ZANU PF is diverting money from Marange
diamonds as alleged by its coalition partners, then some of the cash is
probably not finding its way to President Robert Mugabe.

The MDC
formations accuse Zanu PF of skimming off money from Marange to fund its war
chest for next year’s elections at a time the government is struggling to
pay its workers a living wage.

They have cited the US$20 million input
scheme Mugabe launched recently in Harare as well as a new US$6 million
convention complex built in Gweru for the party’s conference.

But if
Zanu PF is flash with cash, then the party may have forgotten to lavish its
leader with the riches as the famously frugal 88-year-old donned party
regalia from the 2005 election campaign.

Mugabe - in power since 1980 -
addressed about 6,000 supporters at the Gweru gathering, typically donning
yellow party regalia emblazoned with his head. But the devil was in the
detail: a campaign message on his lapel urged ‘Vote Zanu PF
2005’.

Still, Mugabe’s choice of clothing may have been deliberate. He
rallied the party faithful for key elections he wants to be held in March by
asking for selfless public service underpinned by prudence.

He
demanded an end to corruption and projected himself as genuinely in touch
with the man on the street. He peppered his speech with condemnation of
Zimbabweans’ pet hates: traffic police, customs officers and fat cat
ministers.

Some ministers, he said, were soliciting bribes from
foreign investors claiming that some of the cash would find its way to him.
We are all victims of these evil operators, was the message.

“I was
getting complaints even kunze from former South African president Thabo
Mbeki who said some of our ANC people who come (to Zimbabwe) trying to do
business, have been told ‘if you want to do business you should give us US$1
million. No, it is now US$5 million. We will take some of the money to
President Mugabe, zvekundinyepera’,” Mugabe charged.

“That is
corruption. If I get information that minister so-and-so is doing that, you
go immediately. Unfortunately, vamwe vanenge vasingadi kutaura mazita. Be
disciplined. Do not try to deceive. There is a lot of indiscipline taking
place.”

Mugabe also said corruption was also rife in other public
services such as the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and the police, with
officers inconveniencing ordinary people by demanding bribes at road blocks
and border posts.

“We want you to be straightforward people. You
are representatives not only of government, but of the people as a
whole.”Mugabe said it was wrong for public officials to demand payment for
doing their jobs adding thousands of young Zimbabweans who fought to
liberate the country never demanded a penny.

“It (joining the
liberation war) was just commitment. If you want to be paid to do your job,
then you are practising corruption and you cannot boast of having a
well-disciplined police,” he said.

The speech went down very well with
the party faithful ahead of key elections next year, in which Zanu PF hopes
its message of “empowerment” will win the day.

The party’s elections
chief Webster Shamu said they would “saturate the national heart’s and
mind’s battlespace with the party’s ideological teachings and deny that same
space to the Western regime change surrogates that are active in our
national body politic”.

Hoop
dreams: Robert Mugabe's son abandons basketball ambitions

Robert Mugabe's son
has abandoned his dream of a basketball career because US sanctions mean he
cannot play in America, his mother Grace said at the
weekend.

By Peta Thornycroft in Johannesburg 5:10PM GMT 09
Dec 2012

Mrs Mugabe, 47, told journalists at the annual Zanu PF
conference in Zimbabwe that her son Robert, 19, was "very good" at
basketball and longed for the chance to play in the "best league in the
world," the NBA.

"We had to sit him down and explain that he cannot join
a club playing in the US college league because of the sanctions. It hurt
him because there was a lot of interest in him, but now he understands what
it means to be the son of President Mugabe," she said.

None of Mr and
Mrs Mugabe's three children are named on US and EU sanctions lists, and
there is nothing therefore to stop Robert Jnr from travelling to the United
States."Tino," as the young Mugabe is known among friends, attended the same
rural Catholic mission school, Kutama, where his father was
educated.

After poor 'O' levels at Kutama, he transferred to St John's
School in the capital Harare, close to his parents' lavish home. There he
failed all his 'A' levels but shone at sports, in particular
basketball.

State media have described Mr Mugabe Jnr as "the gangly first
son" with a "rare" talent for basketball. His father, on the other hand, is
a known cricket fan.

Middle child Robert Jnr was born shortly after
Mr Mugabe's first wife Sally died of kidney disease 20 years
ago.

During Sally's last years, Mr Mugabe chose Grace Marufu from the
presidential typing pool as his mistress and had a daughter, Bona, now 23
and studying in Asia. They went on to marry after Sally Mugabe
died.

Mr Mugabe, who will be 89 in February, told the Zanu PF conference
he will lead his party to victory in elections next year.

100% Lunacy – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary: 8th December 2012

Mugabe’s
call for 100% ‘indigenous’ ownership of companies in Zimbabwe is an invitation
to a new wave of looting which will end foreign investment, killing any prospect
of economic growth while Zanu PF is in power. And remaining in power is what the
policy is about.

Speaking
at the Zanu PF conference in Gweru, Mugabe said: ‘The notion that capital is
more important than any other factors is nonsense.’ He added that the notion was
‘dirty, filthy and criminal.’

Launching
a blatant vote-buying campaign for re-election, he said of indigenization: ‘I
think now we have done enough of 51 percent. Let it be 100 percent’ (see: http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/dec8_2012.html#Z1
– Mugabe backs 100% black ownership of Zimbabwe-based
firms).

Mugabe
said that if foreign owned companies don’t want to abide by these rules they
should go away. And so they will. Ironically Mugabe’s new policy was announced
on the same day as the economist Eric Bloch wrote in a newspaper article that
foreign investment is essential for Zimbabwe. He said: ‘There is an abysmal and
contemptuous disregard for the irrefutable fact that the country desperately
needs such investment in order to attain substantive growth of its economy. That
growth is critical if a comprehensive reduction of the overwhelming
unemployment that has plagued Zimbabwe for too long is to materialise’ (see: http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/dec8a_2012.html#Z21
– Barriers to investment on the increase).

The
Vigil believes the welfare of ordinary Zimbabweans has never been of concern to
Mugabe. The only growth that counts for him is in the money he can spend to
ensure he stays in power. And, thanks to diamonds, he has shown there is a lot
of that.

News
that Zimbabwe was to be discussed at the SADC meeting in Dar es Salaam should
have given us encouragement. After all, SADC laid down the rules for the next
elections and is supposed to enforce them. But following the recent comments by
President Zuma’s adviser Lindiwe Zulu we are expecting nothing. She said of the
lack of progress in the constitution-making exercise merely that she hoped the
political parties would ‘try to move the process quicker than it is moving at
the moment’.

Ms
Zulu wouldn’t say who was responsible for the deadlock but everyone knows and
until South Africa faces up to Mugabe’s intransigence there can be no progress
and no fair elections (see: Zuma team meets
political parties over constitutional deadlock – http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/nov30_2012.html#Z1).

Other
points

·Our
sister organization the Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) met in
Birmingham to elect a new executive. Vigil founder member Ephraim Tapa, who set
up ROHR in 2007, was confirmed as Chair. Around 70 people attended, representing
most of the branches in the UK. The conference resolved to relaunch programmes
in Zimbabwe and start operations in South Africa as well. Signatures were
collected for a petition to the UK Border Agency protesting at the treatment of
Zimbabwean deportees. Representatives from the Vigil and Zimbabwe We Can
attended the conference to express their support. Mr Tapa said there’d been an
enthusiastic attitude at the meeting with determination to continue the work. A
full report will be posted on the ROHR website www.rohzimbabwe.org.

·We were
glad to have with us a festive choir in Santa Claus hats from our partner
organization the Zimbabwe Association. They sang rousing Christmas songs in
Shona and English.

·Following
the suicide of our supporter Bernard Hukwa, we are ever mindful of how difficult
life is in the UK for Zimbabwean asylum seekers (particularly in the winter).
Thanks to Josephine Zhuga and Louisa Musaerenge for their compassionate
assistance to one of our supporters who came to us today in considerable
distress.

For
latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/.
Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website – they
cannot be downloaded from the slideshow on the front page of the Zimvigil
website.

·Film
‘Robert Mugabe: Villain or Hero’.
Saturday 15th December at 2 pm. Venue: British Film Institute, BFI
Southbank, Belvedere Road, South Bank, London SE1 8XT. There will be a panel /
audience discussion. For full details: http://tinyurl.com/mugabe-villain-or-hero.

·The
Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the
Vigil’s partner organization based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for
the Vigil to have an organization on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the
Vigil’s mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises
through membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of
ROHR in Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/.
Any other website claiming to be the official website of ROHR in no way
represents the views and opinions of ROHR.

·ZBN
News. The
Vigil management team wishes to make it clear that the Zimbabwe Vigil is not
responsible for Zimbabwe Broadcasting Network News (ZBN News). We are happy that
they attend our activities and provide television coverage but we have no
control over them. All enquiries about ZBN News should be addressed to ZBN News.

The
Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every
Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights
in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.

Zimbabwe;
what if ZANU (PF) wins

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe greets crowds during
his 88th birthday rally in Mutare about 265km (165miles) east of the capital
Harare, February 25, 2012. Mugabe turned 88 on Tuesday. REUTERS/Philimon
Bulawayo (ZIMBABWE – Tags: POLITICS)Never say never, because politics is
an unpredictable and dirty game.

A colleague of mine posed to me a very
fascinating mental challenge the other day. She challenged me to imagine
what would happen to Zimbabwe if ZANU (PF) won the next elections and became
the next legitimately elected government. I laughed at her, saying that that
is definitely the most ridiculous thought I have heard this year. However
since that conversation, the possibility of an outright majority win by ZANU
(PF) in the next elections in Zimbabwe has somehow kept my mind occupied. It
is an issue that I am compelled to seriously contemplate upon because as we
all know, never say never, especially in politics

I therefore cannot
continue to ignore a likely scenario where ZANU (PF) attains the majority of
the vote and remains the majority governing party in Zimbabwe until 2018. To
ghastly to contemplate for sure.

Let me share with my readers a true
story. A black small holder tobacco farmer was seen weeping outside the
tobacco floors just outside Harare. Asked what was wrong with him, he said
that nothing was wrong at all. In fact, he was just so happy and overwhelmed
because he was holding in his hand, a cheque for USD6, 000 made out to him.
In his entire life, he said that he had never imagined that he could own
such a huge amount of money. Thank God for Mugabe, he said, because if it
was not for him, a black farmer like him would never have had such an
opportunity. He would definitely vote for Mugabe anytime, because it was
Mugabe who chased away the whites who used to make all the money and now it
was his turn.

That about sums up the conundrum we are faced with. The
majority of rural Zimbabweans, where the most votes reside, are poor and
seem easily swayed by crafty political gimmicks. Give them a piece of land
to farm on, some inputs and empty promises for a better future, and then you
are most likely to get their vote. This is beside the fact that they may
never own that piece of land on which they farm on. They are caught in a
cycle of low expectations and subsistence survival. They cannot imagine a
much better life than that which they have already attained and ZANU (PF)
has over the years, mastered just how to capitalize on that.

It has
since dawned on me, that these are the very people that are likely to
determine my destiny through their vote, simply because of their numbers.
They most definitely do not have the same concerns and aspirations as I
have, but unfortunately, they have a big say in my future. That is why I
think a majority vote system where all votes are equal, and winner takes all
is the worst form of democracy. In my opinion, mass opinion is the worst
enemy of progress because, the masses are almost always wrong when it comes
to politics and economics. All you have to do is to look across
Africa.

Now, if ZANU (PF) wins the next elections, it will be the rural
folk that deliver power to them as I am convinced that Zimbabwean urbanites
are ready for This of course excludes the ZANU(PF) patronage brigade in all
sectors who will vote to maintain their lifestyle. I am forced, therefore,
not to write this scenario off as impracticable, but to anticipate the
likely consequences.

I imagine that if this happens, the
international community will have to accept the choice of the majority of
Zimbabweans and remove any financial restrictions that are now in place. If
they insist that Mugabe must go, ZANU (PF) may quickly replace him as he is
due to retire anyway. That could then hopefully result in a more moderate
leader, who would then offer an olive branch to the MDC and establish a
coalition government in order to present an acceptable front to the world.
The dilemma is whether the MDC would accept such an
arrangement.

This would be the best case scenario I think.
However, the downside is that it may lead to more of the same, where
economic recovery will be very slow and the ownership structures of the
economy, business activity and public enterprises remain intact and under
the control and direction of ZANU (PF). Indigenization would most probably
be ramped up and we are likely to see very little foreign direct investment.
The economy would have a glass ceiling while our projected economic growth
will hardly be achievable; we will therefore achieve very little, very
slowly.

In such a scenario, Zimbabweans in the Diaspora would definitely
not return, nor would we see any significant shift in national development
priorities. In other words, we would be stuck with the devil we know for
another five years. That would be distressing.

I do think that ZANU
(PF) would be pleasantly surprised of such a development, while the MDC will
have failed to deliver democracy to the masses.

The worst case
scenario would be increasing political arrogance, the stifling of the
opposition and the continued misguided indigenization rhetoric of ZANU (PF).
This would result in an enclave economy characterized by increasing poverty,
lack of development and the consolidation of political and economic power by
the army and the ZANU (PF) cabal. We cannot write this possibility off and
must continue to pray that this will not happen.

To be prudent, I
think we need to factor the above scenarios into our thinking and planning
for next year because politics is an unpredictable and dirty game. We just
have to hope for the best and do whatever we can to avoid the continued
domination by ZANUPF). However given the history of Zimbabweans, I am
nervous that most will accept whatever scenario and once again wait for
divine intervention.

The slow grinding wheel of change will once again be
with us.

Aluta continua!

Vince Musewe is an
independent economist in Harare and you may contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com

‘I’ll let Mugabe die in peace’

Sunday Times UK

Despite smears
and suspicious deaths, Morgan Tsvangirai is offering his rival an amnesty to
head off further violence

Dan McDougall, Harare Published: 9 December
2012

THE prime minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, who is still
grieving over the deaths of his wife and grandson and who has been smeared
by allegations of a bigamous marriage, has held out an olive branch to his
old foe, President Robert Mugabe.

When he last contested the
presidency in 2008, Mugabe’s supporters unleashed a murderous tide of
violence against members of Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), forcing him to pull out of the race.

Now Tsvangirai, 60, has made
Mugabe an offer in the run-up to the next election, expected in April. In an
interview with The Sunday Times at his mansion in the affluent Harare suburb
of Borrowdale, he promised to grant Mugabe, 88, and his Zanu-PF party
cronies an amnesty if he wins, so they can retire quietly to the farms they
have seized.

“I’m not motivated by revenge or looking back,” Tsvangirai
said. “We can’t look back or take retribution on Mugabe or Zanu-PF for
what’s passed. If we win we’ll not go after Mugabe. If he loses he’ll have
no more life to lead. We’ll finally see a frail old man who’s lived his day.
There’ll be no need to take action.”

Despite calls for justice by the
families of Mugabe’s victims, Tsvangirai proposes a truth and reconciliation
process similar to that of post-apartheid South Africa. “If we win there’d
have to be a process that puts Zanu perpetrators face to face with the
relatives of their victims. That’s something we’d do.”

Tsvangirai has
suffered considerably. Apart from being cheated of victory in the last
election, in 2007 he was beaten by police for taking part in a peaceful
prayer meeting that the police had deemed illegal. Mugabe crowed that his
rival “deserved” his punishment for disobeying police orders.

He has also
survived several assassination attempts, including one in 1997 when unknown
assailants burst into his 10th-floor office and tried to hurl him out of the
window.

Since he agreed to join a unity government in which Mugabe holds
most of the power, Tsvangirai has had to watch the few remaining white
farmers having their land seized and the country’s vast diamond wealth being
looted by the president’s allies. Huge riches from the Marange Valley
diamond fields are under the control of Mugabe.

Tsvangirai believes
that during the past few years the party and its leaders have siphoned off
about US$1bn (£620m).

He said: “Our diamond revenues are nearly $1.5bn,
but our fiscal budget only benefited from $40m this year, when we expected
almost $500m. So over $1bn in revenues hasn’t reached the Zimbabwean
people.”

Tsvangirai has experienced tragedy during his time in office.
Both his wife, Lilian, who was his political mentor, and his three-year-old
grandson, Sean, died in accidents in 2009.

“Look, there is no denying
it’s been a harrowing journey for me. Political life has been fraught and
has brought enormous challenges,” he said. “Politics in Zimbabwe can be a
deadly business.”

Friends say Tsvangirai never fully recovered from
Lilian’s death in a car crash and Sean’s drowning in a swimming pool.
Serious questions remain over Lilian’s death, in which a lorry swerved into
the path of their Toyota Land Cruiser four days before Tsvangirai’s 57th
birthday. Car accidents have become a cause of death for several of the
regime’s enemies. Tsvangirai dismisses talk of a plot but a close adviser
said his wife’s death was suspicious.

“Morgan’s public face is to
deny it was an attempt on his own life that took his wife’s, but none of his
team believes it was an accident. It was a miracle he survived and is with
us today,” the adviser said.

According to opinion polls, Tsvangirai has
been damaged by the messy circumstances of his marriage to Elizabeth
Macheka, 35, in September: he was accused of bigamy.

Days before the
lavish ceremony, a Harare magistrate ruled that Tsvangirai’s former lover,
Locardia Karimatsenga, had proved she was his wife under Zimbabwe’s
traditional marriage laws. As a consequence Tsvangirai and his fiancée had
to exchange vows under a “customary marriage” law that allows
polygamy.

In a country where the churches still hold great sway,
Tsvangirai believes Mugabe’s agents orchestrated a plot to humiliate him.
“There’s been a focus on my personal life to unseat me. It was
mischief-making by my enemies and without foundation,” he said.

As
the election grows closer there have been signs that Zanu-PF is once again
turning to violence to ensure Mugabe clings to power. A new generation of
Zanu-PF youth militias is emerging in campaign battlegrounds.

Attacks on
MDC members, including a brutal assault on John Kinnaird, the party
treasurer for Midlands North, and his wife, Jackie, who were taken to
hospital after being beaten with tyre irons, are growing more
widespread.

Other MDC activists have been burnt and have had their legs
broken. Tsvangirai called on the United Nations to ensure a fair election.
He said: “To make sure they are fair we must be transparent, but Zanu
doesn’t want the UN here. They don’t want this transparency.”

He
added that next year’s poll would be the country’s best chance to escape its
spiral of dictatorship, violence and economic decline: “We want a fair
election. I’ve had an extraordinary experience taking on this fight. I’ve
suffered loss and hurt but this struggle is my fate. It’s time to put the
politics of the gun behind us once and for all.”

Zimbabwe: Has its first coalition improved the country?

Today Zimbabwe is a devastated nation, but this wasn’t
always the case. ‘There was a time when the country was so prosperous that
people from neighbouring countries came to live out their dreams in
Zimbabwe,’ says Kudzinetsa Sitotombe, a former citizen. However, many
citizens now live in fear and discontent. An ex-resident who wishes to
remain anonymous describes the horror: ‘I am a personal victim, having been
beaten and had my home and possessions taken away. Many people have been
victimised, burnt, tortured, and raped by the regime.’ Although the current
government is an all-party coalition that has promised radical reform,
Zimbabwe remains in turmoil.

The coalition between the MDC and ZANU
PF parties was formed in 2008 after ten years of autocratic rule by Robert
Mugabe. At first there was hope among the Zimbabwean people. Now there is
only disappointment. A former MDC parliamentary worker, who will be known as
‘Pete Jones’, argues that ‘wherever in the world there are remaining
dictators … one can draw a parallel to Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean issue has
nothing to do with race, it is about a repressive regime fighting to stay in
power without the support of the people.’

When Morgan
Tsvangurai of the progressive MDC joined the coalition, it was believed that
he would exert a positive influence. Another interviewee, ‘Tom’, sees things
differently: the joint government is ‘a dictatorship’ which has
,‘‘successfully ‘governed the country to its total
collapse’.

‘Pete Jones’ adds that, at first, ‘the coalition
between the MDC and ZANU PF never "fell" in to place, it came about as a
result of the Zimbabweans people’s resolve and [desire] for change. In spite
of violence and rigging, ZANU PF was defeated but Mugabe and ZANU PF refused
to transfer power in order to create stability and ease the suffering of the
Zimbabwean people. The MDC entered into an agreement that was to allow a
period of reforms to be carried out in preparation for a non-violent free
and fair election [whose] outcome would be uncontested. This period has
passed and two thirds of the issues in the agreement have still to be
implemented by ZANU PF. It is a difficult coalition with little agreement on
policy issues.’

Another resident agrees. ‘The coalition is just a
window to show the world that the parties are getting along.’ The coalition
has failed to resolve the struggles of old. Another interviewee claims that
‘the situation continues because the people are completely disenfranchised
and controlled by a ruthless and seemingly invincible regime that stops at
nothing to retain power.’

‘Most Zimbabweans believe that the
nations of the world, including African nations and especially Britain, have
failed them.’ This is the view of a Zimbabwean who fled the country to seek
refuge abroad.

The international media has largely ignored the
abuses of the coalition and Zimbabwe’s worsening political and economic
situation. Robert Dowden asserts that the ‘international media can sometimes
view Africa as a brand through which it is characterised as riddled with
war, famine and disease.’ Zimbabwe is part of such a ‘brand’ and receives
little coverage abroad due to the international media’s attitude to African
news stories. Author Susan Moeller states that ‘to forestall the
“I’ve-seen-it-before” syndrome, journalists reject events that aren’t more
dramatic or more lethal than their predecessors.’ Arguably, situations that
haven’t changed much over periods of years are regarded as less relevant
than newer, more rapidly-developing situations. ‘Editors and producer,’
continues Moeller, ‘don’t assign stories and correspondents don’t cover
events that they believe will not appeal to their readers and
viewers.’

It is evident that the coalition has not been covered
by the global media as thoroughly as previous issues and events in the
country.

‘Zimbabwe meant a lot to me,’ says a dismayed
ex-resident. ‘It was my place of sanctuary and refuge in this world and
where my family was and indeed some [members] still are’. Despite assurances
of much-awaited change, the coalition has proven to be nothing more than a
broken promise which has in no way lived up to the expectations of the
Zimbabwean people. One can only hope for significant political progress to
restore hope to the once bread-basket of Africa.

Constitution Watch of 8th December [Principals Set Up Committee to Deal With Post-Conference Deadlock]

CONSTITUTION
WATCH

[8th December
2012]

Principals Set Up New Committee to Deal with Deadlock

Continuing Story of Delay and Deadlocks

The whole constitution-making process has been characterised by
delays and deadlocks. Although a “final”
COPAC draft [available from Veritas], was signed as complete by the
negotiators of all three parties in July [over 2 years late according to the
schedule laid down by the GPA] subsequent discussions in the ZANU-PF Politburo
led to that party demanding a whole raft of new changes and producing its own
re-draft in late August [also available from Veritas].The other
parties rejected the ZANU-PF demands, and it was the COPAC draft that went to
the Second All Stakeholders Conference on 22nd October.The Conference merely continued the
stand-off, with delegates sharply divided between those supporting the COPAC
final draft and those supporting the ZANU-PF demands.No resolution was even attempted at the
Conference.The COPAC Select Committee’s
report on the Conference [not yet available to the public] reflected the
unresolved issuesand referred them to the Management Committee.

On 12th October the Management Committee also reached deadlock, with
ZANU-PF members wanting the principals to take over and negotiate a solution,
and both MDCs saying the COPAC draft, with changes already agreed, should go to
Parliament and then to theReferendum.The MDCs’ stance follows the Article 6, but would probably just push the
impasse to another level [see Constitution Watch of 19th October].

Next Sequence of Events

With pressure mounting from SADC, the principals decided they would
take over the process [as the President warned at the Conference].But they did not have a special meeting to discuss the way forward.Instead they chose to leave it to their
routine Monday weekly meeting.

Monday 19th November :Principals briefed

At this meeting the principals received a briefing from Minister of
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs
Eric Matinenga.They then requested him
to prepare a report containing his recommendations on the way forward.Another week passed before they took the
matter up again.

Monday 26th November :Principals call for another committee

Minister Matinenga presented his report, and recommendation that the
Management Committee should try again, at a meeting attended by President
Mugabe, Prime MinisterTsvangirai and Deputy Prime MinisterMutambara, but the decision reached was to
set up a small new Committee which would include a Minister from each party to
make further efforts to overcome the deadlock.Professor Ncube was then allowed to join the
meeting and was informed of the decision.[This
seems an anomaly, as Professor Ncube and his party
have been the ones involved in the COPAC
process.]

Comment: There has been a great deal of criticism that this step is
an interference of the Executive in what the GPA designed as a Parliamentary
constitution-making process.

Setting up the New Committee

MDC reaction to new Committee

ZANU-PF and MDC-T were quick to put forward their Ministerial nominees for the new
Committee – Ministers Chinamasa and Biti, respectively.

MDC, however, was dissatisfied with the way in which Professor Ncube had been called into the meeting and in effect
presented with a fait accompli.MDC
Minister and GPA negotiator Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga voiced this
dissatisfaction on behalf of the party.She complained that President Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai were not complying with the resolution of the
August 2012 SADC Summit in Maputo that Professor Ncube, not Professor Mutambara, is the MDC principal for GPA
purposes.The MDC also made it clear
that their party position was that the principals should not take over
COPAC’s
mandate to produce a new constitution.All this created a general impression that MDC would not be taking
part in the proceedings of the new Committee, even though the party’s standing
committee had not yet met to decide whether to participate, and would only do so
the following week.

SADC facilitation team in Harare

President Zuma’s facilitation team was in
Harare on 28th November and held meetings with negotiators of all three GPA
parties.The team were briefed on,
amongst other matters, the current stalemate in the constitution-making
process and the formation of the new Committee.

At a press briefing on 29th November Minister Matinenga explained
that the Committee would deal with areas of disagreement in the substantive
second all-stakeholders’ report in an effort to unlock the deadlock.If the Committee could not do this, the
problem would have to go back to the principals.He insisted that the setting up of the new
Committee did not signify that the constitution-making
process had ceased to be a COPAC and Parliamentary affair.Any conclusions reached would be referred to
the Select Committee for endorsement and the Select Committee would still have
to present its report and the draft constitution to Parliament ahead of the
Referendum.

Tuesday 4th December: MDC decides to take part in
Committee

At its meeting on Tuesday the party’s standing committee
decided that MDC would not boycott the Committee.It confirmed Minister Misihairabwi-Mushonga
as its Ministerial member on the Committee.A spokesman explained that the party was doing this “to participate in the process of finding
the best and quickest route to having a Referendum”, and on the
understanding that the Committee is not a new body: “This Committee is a continuation of work
done by COPAC”.The new Committee is in fact a pared-down version of the Management
Committee, with three members, wearing their Ministerial hats instead of their
party negotiator hats, plus the co-chairs and Minster Matinenga
.

Composition of New Committee

The Committee has the following seven members:

·Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Matinenga as
convenor and chairperson

·three Cabinet Ministers, one from each of the three GPA parties
[Chinamasa, Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Biti]

·three COPAC co-chairs. [Mwonzora, Mangwana and Coltart or Mkhosi]

New Committee has First Meeting and Will Meet Again on 10th
December

Minister Matinenga convened an inaugural meeting on 5th
December.There was full attendance
[Matinenga, Chinamasa, Mangwana, Biti, Mwonzora, Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Coltart].[Note: Mr
Mkhosi, Minister Coltart’s alternate co-chair, was absent for medical
reasons.Mr Coltart was appointed the
MDC co-chair as he is an experienced lawyer, as are the other two co-chairs, but
as he has been so busy with his duties as Minister of Education that Mr Mkhosi
has been the usual MDC co-chair.]

Since then Committee members’ other commitments have prevented the
Committee from getting down to serious work.Minister Chinamasa and Mr Mangwana have been involved in the business of
the ZANU-PF Annual Conference, starting with the Politburo Meeting on Wednesday
and continuing until Saturday.Minister
Biti had engagements in the UK.

The Committee has scheduled its next meeting for Monday 10th
December, continuing on Tuesday if necessary.Minister Matinenga has said he believes the Committee can in that time
decide whether or not agreement is possible.

Veritas
makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal
responsibility for information supplied